Best September Art

Where to see art in Houston now: 10 exhibits and shows opening in September

We’ve got art parties all over the city this month, as the first of the fall blockbuster exhibitions open, and we also celebrate some institutional and artist anniversaries and birthdays. If that wasn’t enough, Houston finally has a big art fair once again, with Untitled Art bringing in extraordinary presentations of work from galleries and exhibitors across the globe. Collectors won’t want to miss these four days of special projects, markets, installations, and special events.

"Perhaps Just a Trick of the Light” at Lawndale Art Center (now through October 4)
Immerse yourself in this installation from multidisciplinary artist JR Roykovich that features bright lights, fog, and low visibility. Roykovich uses light, lens-based media, and found objects to build environments that expand viewers’ sense of geographic and metaphoric space, perception, and individual experience. For this installation, Roykovich adopts some of the images and symbols of queer nightlife and the motifs of paranormal phenomena to reflect on personal pilgrimages and ultimately turn Lawndale’s John M. O’Quinn gallery into a mothership of investigation.

“Makers of Legacy” at Mitochondria Gallery (now through October 4)
This show of bonded marble sculptures by Nigerian sculptor Ejiro Fenegal celebrates African women. Rooted in the cultural landscape of Africa, the works were sculpted to honor the complexity of what it means to be a woman and remain strong. Bonded marble serves as a metaphor for both strength and unity, reflecting the resilience that binds generations together. Fenegal’s work serves as both a tribute and acknowledgment of the women who came before, the women shaping the present, and the women whose legacies will guide the future.

“The Journey to Everything” at Houston Museum of African American Culture (now through December 15)
Featuring the work of Philadelphia-based Neo-African Abstract Expressionist painter, poet, novelist, philanthropist, and Tony Award-winning producer Danny Simmons, the exhibition takes viewers on an adventure into Simmons’s poetic painted worlds. This “Journey” explores themes of diaspora, ancestral memory, and Black spirituality.Simmons creates his depictions of “Everything” within collages on paper and canvas, Ankara fabric, Bogolan mud cloth from Mali, paper cutouts of visible and partially visible faces, Congolese bark cloth, neon lace, gestural lines, and splashes of color on single frames and triptychs.

“Bio Morphe” at Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts (now through December 20)
Art comes alive at the Moody Center with this new show that blurs boundaries between nature, science, and artistic creation. The exhibition showcases seven international artists who make work inspired by nature and biological processes, as well as some who even use biological materials as part of their process. The Moody itself becomes an intrinsic part of the exhibition as large scale sculptures appear to grow from the buildings outdoor pillars and burst from balconies and ceilings indoors. Some highlights of the exhibition are Sui Park’s “Microcosm,” delicate creatures sculpted from zip ties; Lucy Kim’s printed images using Melanin, produced from genetically modified living E. coli cells; and the mammoth, inflatable sculptures of Spanish artist Eva Fàbregas.

“At the Moody our mission is to connect disparate disciplines through the arts, and in so doing illuminate critical questions shared by artists, scholars, and scientists,” says Moody director, Alison Weaver, of the exhibition. “Bio Morphe is an exciting exploration of fields ranging from biology and bioengineering to cognitive neuroscience, and we’re eager to invite our guests to be a part of these ever-evolving conversations.”

''The Jewelry of Dorothea Prühl” at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through January 3, 2027)
The MFAH celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building’s opening with special exhibitions this fall. These long-running shows will highlight some of the diversity and range of their contemporary art collection, which the Kinder now showcases to the world. First up this month is this selection of necklaces and brooches dating from 1976 to 2025 by internationally renowned German jewelry artist, Dorothea Prühl. Working in metal and wood and inspired by nature, Prühl creates jewelry as small sculptures. Comprised of an extraordinary promised gift to the MFAH by the Rotasa Foundation Trust, which has granted the museum the largest single holding of Prühl’s jewelry in the world, this is the first exhibition in the United States dedicated to the artist.

''Material Presence” at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (ongoing)
Keeping the Kinder celebration going, this next exhibition puts a spotlight on contemporary artists who defy traditional frames for the work, be it media or set genres. Instead, these artists work in nontraditional “material,” or use classic mediums like plaster, plastic, canvas, or rice paper in surprising ways. Highlights of the show include Ai Weiwei’s own vision of Claude Monet’s “Waterlilies” created in LEGO® bricks, James Turrell’s mural-scaled “General Site Plan, Roden Crater,” and two of Carlos Cruz-Diez’s signature “Physichromies” pieces.

“The Space We Make’ at Throughline Collective (September 12-October 11)
As the collective art space nears its two year anniversary, they’re celebrating with this group exhibition of work by new and veteran artist members, who have contributed their time, labor, skills, and life experiences toward building Throughline as a place of experimentation, open communication, and new ideas. While the exhibition will present pieces conceived across artistic mediums, they all are in some way influenced by a central Throughline question: What does it mean to work voluntarily and collectively to preserve this autonomy in the present, for oneself and others?

“Chroma Collective” at Discovery Green (September 12-November 2)
Since its opening, Discovery Green has always been a place for art, as well as community. But with the launch of their Art Lab mentoring program in 2024 to support underrepresented local artists, Discovery Green planted art seeds that continue to grow and bloom. The latest harvest to come from the program is Houston-based artist Karen Navarro’s “Chroma Collective,” which Navarro developed in the program with mentoring from Brooklyn-based, internationally renowned artist Jen Lewin, Weingarten Art Group, Houston-based design firm MetaLab and Discovery Green Conservancy. The large-scale installation is composed of two-dimensional imagery, three-dimensional sculpture, and mirrored surfaces, and reflects Navarro’s experience as an immigrant of Latin American, European, and Indigenous descent. Built from a sleek metal frame and UV-printed portraits, the interactive work features columns and panels depicting Houstonians and the artist herself. Walking amid the columns, visitors can rotate the panels to become contributors to how we view the work and the whole Discovery Green landscape.

Untitled Art Fair at George R. Brown Convention Center (September 18-21)
Quite a few years have passed since Houston had a massive contemporary art fair in town, so we marked our calendars for the first annual Untitled Art as soon as it was announced. While GRB will be the art base for seeing the work of Texas, national, and international artists and 88 participating galleries, Untitled Art will also partner with art organizations across the city for special events, performances, and art happenings. Amid the four days of programming look for Special Projects, exhibitions and shows calling attention to key issues through local and international voices, and Houston Artist Market, what seems to be a curated fair within the fair for local artists and collectives to present their work in an accessible, dynamic environment. Untitled will also offer a special podcast for on-site conversations during the fair and four major prizes for artists will be awarded over the weekend.

“Robert Rauschenberg: Fabric Works of the 1970s” at Menil Collection (September 18-March 1, 2026)
The pioneering 20th century contemporary artist, and Texas-born, Robert Rauschenberg, would have turned 100 this year. Museums across the world are celebrating. As John and Dominique de Menil were early collectors, supporters, and longtime friends of Rauschenberg, of course the Menil Collection will be presenting one of the more unique commemorations of the artist. This special exhibition will focus on Rauschenberg’s work in the 1970s, as he turned to textiles as an art medium. Finding a home away from New York on the Florida Gulf Coast, Rauschenberg began exploring the kinetic possibilities of fabric to indicate movement, as well as a flowing canvas for printing. The presentation features major loans from museum collections and the artist’s foundation. This will be the first museum survey of Rauschenberg’s innovative use of cloth in this era.

“This exhibition looks at Rauschenberg’s fascinating use of woven materials in the 1970s, which reflect his career-long interest in not only the intersection of art and life, for which the artist has become so well known, but his acumen with fabric stemming from his early interest in fashion design and deep understanding of how woven material can so beautifully relate to the body,” describes Menil senior curator, Michelle White, adding, “The artist’s utilization of fabric at this time, along with his engagement with the language of minimalism, provides a new way to consider the artist's work at mid-career, one that anticipates so many contemporary concerns in the decades to follow.”

Photo courtesy of Sapar Contemporary and the artist

Moody Center for the Arts presents "Bio Morphe"

visual-art museums openings

honoring the past

Houston museum's new project preserves historic Freedmen's Town bricks

Freedmen's Town Rebirth in Action pavilion rendering

Rendering courtesy of Studio Zewde

Rebirth in Action is set to open in 2027.

As Houstonians come together to celebrate Juneteenth, it’s jarring to think that this day of celebration has only been a federally-recognized holiday since 2021. After all, it was in 1865 that U.S Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston on June 19 to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. After this event many formerly enslaved Black Americans made their way to Houston, establishing what is now Houston’s very first Heritage District, known as Freedmen’s Town.

Now, the robust Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, in partnership with the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and Mount Horeb Church, are working with the City of Houston on a long overdue project, Rebirth in Action, to honor this historic site. Designed by artist Theaster Gates in partnership with landscape architect Sara Zewde, the monumental pavilion will temporarily house more than 20,000 historic bricks previously removed and preserved from Houston’s Freedmen’s Town. Houston Mayor John Whitmire attended the groundbreaking, which took place last month.

While many people recognize Galveston as the site of the first Juneteenth celebrations, both of those took place on January 1, to honor the Emancipation Proclamation. However, recent research by Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities at Rice University W. Caleb McDaniel, has uncovered that the first official Juneteenth celebration was led by two ministers, Sandy Parker and Elias Dibble, right in Freedmen’s Town in 1866. McDaniel’s fascinating article will appear in the next issue of the Journal of Texas History.

Freedmen’s Town, established in 1865 by over 1,000 newly-free Black Houstonians following Juneteenth, has significantly dwindled in recent years due to systematic reductions in resources, despite its initial 500+ historic structures, including churches, schools, and cultural institutions. Rebirth in Action aims to preserve and promote the neighborhood as a monument of Black community, agency, and heritage.

“The work of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is to utilize our museum as a platform for resources sharing; a platform for unearthing new conversations around gems in our city that are also right down the street,” explains Ryan Dennis, co-director and chief curator for the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. “Artists have different practices and artists like Theaster [Gates] can really help understand preservation conditions and needs of community, revitalization, and bringing resources together to better serve a neighborhood and realize optimal benefits, particularly antiquities like the bricks in Freedman’s Town that have been taken out of the neighborhood, displaced in other areas of Houston, and not in the home where they were originally created, paid for, and laid down in (by formerly enslaved individuals), which is Freedmen’s Town.”

The first phase of Rebirth in Action involved artistic activations (including Gates’ exhibition The Gift and The Renege in 2024), artist residencies, community and stakeholder meetings, and the identification, cataloging, and preservation of over 20,000 historic bricks. The pavilion will encourage public viewing of these historic bricks and serve as a hub for engagement with the history, cultural significance, and future of Freedmen’s Town. Additionally, Hines Architecture + Design will rehabilitate three row houses into an adjoining community center.

“I think the whole project is one that’s quite interesting, useful, and productive. I think it’s important for us to think about how we can use our resources to accomplish the things that build collective wellness — right? Wellness in the space of really preserving our communities that have been disinvested in, elevating the real gems of our city,” says Dennis. “We can do that through collaborations and partnerships; we are much stronger when we can do that with others, versus by ourselves, and I think this project really speaks to that ethos.”

Phase Two has been made possible by Mount Horeb Church’s continued stewardship of both land and existing historic structures in Freedmen’s Town. The project will include an arts pavilion and community green space designed by Sara Zewde, with an installation by renowned artist Theaster Gates, plus three historic structures redesigned and restored by Daimian Hines Architecture + Design for adaptive reuse as a food pantry and community garden, after-school programming, and senior services for Mount Horeb Church, who will guide programming and operations.

The art installation will display the original Freedmen’s Town bricks that once lined the streets, giving visitors a chance to experience their significance firsthand. Working with the City of Houston and the North Houston Highway Improvement Program that will reconnect Freedmen’s Town to downtown, Phase Three will see these bricks returned to the streets in a pedestrian promenade capacity. Subsequently, the pavilion will showcase rotating artist activations.

“The Brick Pavilion for Freedmen’s Town is a project that is deeply resonant for me,” shares Gates. “In part, because there are several opportunities to cultivate community and institutional trust, to create an additional neighborhood heart, and to invest in more beauty for this hugely important district of Houston.”

Landscape architect Sara Zewde's pavilion, gardens, and landscape design will help centralize all facets of Rebirth in Action, creating a community hub: “Studio Zewde's collaboration with Theaster Gates began with a shared belief that the future of Freedmen's Town must be rooted in the wisdom of the community that built it,” she writes in an email. “The pavilion and landscape draw inspiration from the neighborhood's tradition of shared backyards that connected the community across property lines. The project builds on this inheritance by forming a shared landscape at the center of the sacred bricks and their pavilion, the restored row houses, the Freedmen's Town Conservancy Visitor Center, and Mount Horeb Baptist Church.”

Architect Daimian Hines credits Reverend Dr. Smith of Mount Horeb Church for the continued stewardship of the land and notes that Dr. Smith oftentimes remarks that the holding of the land has been a form of resistance, the act of holding the land keeping outsiders from contributing to the erasure of Freedmen’s Town and its history.

“The fact that these three houses, and more in the community, that these post-emancipation structures still exist, it wasn’t for a lack of community pressure. It was a combination of efforts by folks like Dr. Smith, who were resisting [gentrification] through ownership,” explains Hines.

“Some of the ownership of some of these properties are so complex, it was difficult for potential buyers [developers] to actually get ownership of some of these structures—I consider that sheer luck.”

Hines worked closely with the Houston Archeological and Historic Commission to propose rehabilitating, modifying, and even relocating the row houses a mere 15 feet. The gabled, cottage-style row houses date back to the late 19th century. These post-emancipation row houses were built by formerly-enslaved, new residents of Houston.

“We wanted to think through: ‘what was the original story, how did the front of the houses and the back of these structures — what role did they play in day-to-day life?’ We were able to make some strategic moves to bring that to the forefront again,” Hines says. “The Rebirth in Action project and the houses are part of a broader preservation goal within the community to not just preserve, but to reuse either for housing, or — in this case — adaptive reuse as a community space.”

Hines notes that one of the row houses is of double-door configuration. This typology signifies that it was most likely a boarding house in its prime, a time when Black Americans weren’t welcome in downtown hotels. The two front doors let travelers know that they were welcome to rent a safe place to stay. Together, the three row houses will offer approximately 3,200-3,600 square feet of space, plus a large back porch that will face the pavilion.

As resources were often few and far between in post-emancipation Freedmen’s Town, the cladding on row houses was patchwork in appearance, as purchasing gaps meant that continuing on with the same materials was unlikely. Regardless, these homes were remarkably well constructed, with solid wood, wooden dowels, and shiplap interior walls. These construction methods, along with allowances for airflow, contributed significantly to their preservation.

“The one thing about these structures is, that as robust as they are, they have taken a beating,” says Hines. “The actual wood, the detailing, a lot of that has been lost, but these structures tell a story. This is a project I knew I wanted to be personally involved in, and my firm. [The structures] will be able to continue telling a story and play an active role in that community, and that’s why I’m excited.”

Rendering courtesy of Studio Zewde

Rebirth in Action is set to open in 2027.

museums contemporary art museum houston freedmen's town visual-art